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Chapter 17: Rift

The rest of my weekend at home went by quickly. That Saturday night, Greyson, Miles, Adrian, Mia, and I rented a movie and had a junk night at my house. Jordan and Katherine were still "keeping their distance" while Jordan kept going to his recovery meetings. On Sunday, when we saw them, Jordan was happier than usual. He greeted me with a hug in Sunday School, asked me and Greyson to sit with him and Katherine then asked us to sit together in church. Once church was over, he even asked us to go eat lunch with them.

"I wonder how different he is," I asked Greyson as we walked to my car across the parking lot. He didn't even have to ask to ride with me anymore. It was just second nature. If we were going somewhere with friends, I knew Greyson would stay by me.

"I doubt he's any different," he laughed.

"Why?"

"Because he's done this before. He got caught 'doing a bad thing' so he made it look like he was going to change so he didn't lose Katherine."

"You really think so?" I asked him.

"Oh, I know so. He's not going to change anything about himself until he wants to change on his own terms."

Greyson was right. At lunch, nothing was different about Jordan, like he had pretended at church. He told us he was still going to his addicts' group, but he had already stopped going to therapy.

"He really is different though," Katherine said between bites of sushi. Greyson side-eyed me and cocked his head to the side small enough that they wouldn't notice, but somehow, Jordan had seen.

"What was that?" Jordan demanded.

"Nothing," Greyson said staring down at his rice.

Jordan looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't want to get into an argument in the middle of the restaurant.

"So, how's school, Kat?" I tried to deter Jordan's glare at Greyson by changing in subject.

"No, I wanna know what that was," Jordan stated slamming his hand on the table hard enough to make both Katherine and myself jump.

"There it is. He's so different," Greyson mocked.

"What are you talking about?" Jordan scoffed.

"Aren't you supposed to not be as angry?" Greyson asked coyly.

I could tell he was trying to push his limits, and I put my hand on his knee under the table to try and stop him from pushing further.

"Oh no," Katherine and I both said at the same time.

We watched as Jordan's face began to get red.

"Aren't you supposed to mind your own business?" He snapped at Greyson.

"Well, if you're yelling at me then it is my business," Greyson replied coldly.

"Oh, alright so now you're just going to put yourself into my business and say it's yours?"

"Baby, stop. It's okay," Katherine tried to pat

Jordan's shoulder. He jerked away from her and she backed down and dropped her head. I thought I had seen her flinch, but figured it had just been in my head.

"Stay out of this, Katherine," Jordan spat.

"Okay," I said angrily. I was angry at both of them for their little alpha-male showdown, and I was mad at how Jordan was treating Katherine. "We need to chill out. People are staring," I forced a smile. "We can talk about this later. Wrong place wrong time."